van der Mark splashes out with special Pata Yamaha livery
Click here for full WorldSBK FP2 results from Assen
Michael van der Mark caught the eye with a special Pata Yamaha livery tweak to celebrate his home round at Assen even if he struggled to light up the timesheet on Friday's free practice.
The local favourite revealed flashes of orange on his Pata Yamaha YZF-R1 to mark his home round and made a bright start in FP1 with fourth place to move within reach of the front three but struggled to replicate his pace using the harder rear tyre in the afternoon session.
Despite fading to eighth on the combined times, van der Mark feels with a trouble-free day he can find gains from the data to hunt the podium at his home event.
"A bit of a mixed day," van der Mark said. "I had quite a good feeling from the beginning at my home track on the Pata Yamaha, in the morning session we changed some things on the bike and then at the end of the session put the soft tyre in and managed quite a good lap time so I was happy with this morning.
"In FP2 we decided to work on the harder rear tyre because we are not sure if the soft one will make it over a race distance. We struggled a little bit but in the end we found a good step and I wanted to try again with the softer tyre but it didn't work like we expected.
"I think the pace we have is not too bad but we have to improve it. Overall we must be happy. My main goal is to fight for the podium and if we can do the same improvements in FP3 the chances can be quite good for the podium."
The Dutch rider has an impressive record at his home circuit having claimed three podiums in four races in his World Superbike career at Assen, plus a race win in 2014 on his way to the World Supersport title.
Assen has recently signed a new deal to host the Dutch round of World Superbikes until at least the end of the 2021 season.
Splash of orange on @mickeyvdmark's @crescent_racing Yamaha R1 at his home round in Assen #WorldSBK pic.twitter.com/p6Bnz41yjZ-- Crash.Net (@CRASH_NET) April 28, 2017
